UK: still not great for 4G

Mobile phone coverage is a hot topic among the people of the UK, which basically means everyone likes complaining about the speed of their 4G when they're trying to use their smartphones when not hooked-up to a wifi access point.

According to a study from our pays over at Which!!!, people are only able to connect to a high-speed 4G signal 53% of the time. Compared with other countries, where mobile-owners can get 4G access 60% of the time, or more, it shows you that the UK is lagging in more ways than one.

The report, published in tandem with mobile coverage experts OpenSignal, showed that out of all the providers, EE had the best coverage, with users getting 4G 60.6% of the time. In second place, O2 at 59%, followed by Vodafone at 57%, and Three at 39.8%.

How were these figures obtained? Well, the stats came from data which was gleaned from over 30,000 registered users of OpenSignal's mobile app, which basically takes a reading every 15 minutes to calculate how often you can get access to 4G.

Richard Lloyd, Which!!! big cheese, said: "Almost everyone now uses a mobile phone service and it's not good enough that the UK is lagging behind so many countries with our 4G network coverage."

"Increasing 4G access should be a priority for mobile providers and Ofcom must continue to push them to make this a reality."

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2 comments

Paul H.

I'll be interested to see if O2 can meet their mandated target of 98% indoor coverage by the end of 2017, which was part of the deal with the spectrum they purchased. They will only quote outdoor coverage at the moment (87%) but when asked there is no figure ever given for the current indoor coverage. Time will tell I guess.

Being able to have a phone conversation inside my house, not stood on the settee in the conservatory would be a nice start. Its not like I live somewhere stupid either, its a town ffs.
What I really don't get is that when at work I get no signal whatsoever in my parking spot, yet move 2 spots up and I get 3 out of 4 bars of 4G. Needless to say a change of provider will be coming up shortly.